{"id":242651,"date":"2025-10-26T19:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/242651\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T19:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:54:11","slug":"how-acosta-risked-f-up-to-score-malaysian-gp-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/242651\/","title":{"rendered":"How Acosta risked \u2018f*** up\u2019 to score Malaysian GP podium"},"content":{"rendered":"

KTM factory rider Pedro Acosta<\/a> says his second place in Sunday\u2019s Malaysian Grand Prix was down to switching off electronic \u2018help\u2019 with his tyre management.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard has struggled with tyre degradation on his RC16 in most races this season, and would not have been a popular bet for the runner-up spot in a contest that demanded careful rubber choice and conservation.<\/p>\n

Omens on Saturday had not been good for Acosta either. The MotoGP sophomore briefly ran second in the sprint before fading to fourth in a race half the distance of the grand prix, which would take place in hotter conditions.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

But for the second time in three weekends, the 21-year-old found a way to finish the grand prix on the podium \u2013 he was runner-up in Indonesia after a cunning tactical ride<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This time, Acosta put his success down to something technical. In the post-race press conference, he revealed that he had made a call to go in a different tyre management direction on Sunday \u2013 and was willing to take the blame if it went wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur problem is quite clear. We [had tried] something that we normally always try and it was not working, again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to the boys, \u2018Look, we cannot be worse\u2026 let\u2019s go completely in the other direction. And if we f*** up, it\u2019s my fault\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we did a good job. It was difficult, again, to battle for the victory, but we were much closer than we expected [because of] this. I\u2019m quite happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pedro <\/p>\n

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Qian Jun \/ MB Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n

In a separate interview in parc ferme, Acosta was clear about the nature of the changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe removed all the controls. I asked them to take everything off, as if it were a normal race, where there was no tyre wear. And I managed it as best I could, with the throttle, the brakes, the pick-ups, the ride height device.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acosta was also clear, however, that this would not develop into standard procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, for sure it will not be something that I want to use in the next races,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MotoGP returns to Europe for its final two rounds, which will take place in the cooler climes of Portugal and Spain.<\/p>\n

Acosta\u2019s was not the only KTM tyre management success story at Sepang. Enea Bastianini<\/a> progressed strongly during the race, moving from 19th on the grid to finish seventh.<\/p>\n

While such rides are typical for the Italian Tech 3<\/a> rider, Acosta\u2019s team-mate Brad Binder<\/a> also made a strong run through the field. The South African went from 18th to ninth.<\/p>\n

The fourth KTM rider, Pol Espargaro<\/a>, crashed out of the race early on.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KTM factory rider Pedro Acosta says his second place in Sunday\u2019s Malaysian Grand Prix was down to switching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,144697,141089,5745,806,805,803,804,141090,85],"class_list":["post-242651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-how-acosta-risked-u2018f-upu2019-to-score-malaysian-gp-podium","tag-malaysian-gp","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sepang-international-circuit","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}